Morning Buzz: Getting better Friday (1.25.13)

If this quick roundup gets posted, I must be shaking the effects of a week-long crud.

Nikki Finke reports that her boss, Jay Penske, is planning "editorial firings" at her competitor Variety in March. She blind-quotes a single newsroom source saying the Variety staff is "totally demoralized." Finke suggests the boss did not approve this message: "No matter what my corporate boss wants, Deadline reports the news." Deadline

Ken Doctor on the newsonomics of Tribune selling the Los Angeles Times and its other papers. Nieman Reports

The contribution and spending reports come faster now in the race for mayor et al. For the first 19 days of January, Wendy Gruel led with about $130,000 in new collections. Eric Garcetti reported about $84,000, Jan Perry about $16,000, Kevin James about $15,000 and Emanuel Pleitez about $8,600. The Republican PAC that claims it will spend big (but independently) for James reported its first $63,697 in expenditures.

James has softened his conservative positions on two key issues, global warming and undocumented immigration, and reaches to try to connect Greuel with assessor John Noguez. DN, LAT

A political banner for City Attorney Carmen Trutanich along the I-5 freeway looks suspiciously like a billboard, but not one claims credit. LAT

LA's quasi-elected neighborhood councils are starting to fulfill the influential role envisioned for them when voters revised the City Charter in 1999. DN

The Bell corruption trials began Thursday with prosecutors depicting six former council members as greedy operators who schemed to collect outsized salaries. Attorneys for the former officials portrayed them as helpless pawns controilled by ex-city administrator Robert Rizzo, who goes on trial later. LAT

The Los Angeles Times promoted acting foreign editor Mark Porubcansky to the top foreign job. A 14-year veteran of the desk, he has been serving as the interim foreign editor since July. LAT

The former Junior's Deli on Westwood Boulevard near Pico has a banner announcing it will become Lenny's Deli, presumably the new home of a closed Pacific Palisades eatery. Eater

Sure, the Lakers are looking bad. But it's the Kings who have now opened the season with three losses. Last night's was ugly: they lost the lead with five seconds to play, then in overtime committed the least excusable penalty possible: too many men on the ice.

Ki Suh Park, an architect who helped rebuild Los Angeles' core after the 1992 riots, died Jan.16 following a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 80. LAT